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Postal Riders and Raiders

CHAPTER II. THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL RIDER

Word Count: 12724    |    Released on: 17/11/2017

it is because I believe Mr. Hitchcock's official action and statements touching the recent legislative move were a deliberate, calcula

d advancing the measure, supply reasonably valid grounds for the charge frequently made that this attempt at "snap" legislation was but a step in a cons

-the forest paths not alone of the Atlantic states but also of those vast acquisitions in the West, known in history as the Northwest Territory and the Louisiana purchases, out of which the fathers carved so many imperial states

reaching that view of life which leads men, in the heat of a justified anger, to say "Happy is the man whose father went to the devil;" meaning thereby that our sons can be happy if we manage to steal and loot enough from

alth seldom make good, safe or dependable ju

s shown very few of them. This may appear to some as a digression from my subject. Well, so count it, if you will. I have made it as

g factor, in the gang of "influenced" mercenaries and aspiring politicians who sought to "submerge" certain periodicals which for ten

nk them over. Study them. If, after, you think I am wrong or overstate the facts, then

een adroitly led from its prescribed way. Today our governmental and social organizations are rich in policemen, soldiers, prisons, poorhouses, organized charities, charit

rs), which Mr. Hitchcock and his coterie of conspirators would muzzle or, by laying an excessive mail rate upon them, sup

adult population of this country during the[31] past ten years than has been given

ts peculiar didactic value or fascination for fools. That means both you and me, reader. W

ar as the writer has been able to learn, a politician. Not only is he a poli

you and to me, as are bugs in our potato patch, or dry rot in our sheep herd. The "ambi

s the

who crawl about the earth, begging for leave to live, see things, hear things, feel things,

have so energetically, likewise offensively, tried to shut us ou

lease, a

liar recent action and talk. It may not be at all pleasant to him. Yet the

l and other abettors in their recent attempt to outrage the constitutional rights of our people, the constitutional rights of the Lower House and the rules of both Senate and House

on matters pertaining to periodical publications has been amply evidenced by subsequent quotations from his own reports and letters. That he at least shares the

visions of service or to the department in general; when old and tried students of the loose, wasteful methods of this department, of its utter lack of business system, yes, of its crooks and crookedness-when, I say, such experienced students frankly and bluntly state their complete inability to gather any

" about the cause of those deficits and how to remedy them by holding up periodical publishers, that, maybe, he has learned more about his department, more a

his departmental matters, I find myself in a multitudinous and growing company of intelligent and informed people to whom he will have to talk and write much more, and to talk and write far more eloquently, p

ch enabled him to grasp so comprehensively, as he would have it appear, the duties, functions, faults in accounting, frailties in the service personnel,-in shor

ound "stumper" put it, steered the votes to Judge Taft and himself to his present exalted position. Now, this experience of Mr. Hitchcock may or may not have especially qualified h

k about the affairs, methods, needs and "deficits" of his department displays a knowledge of the subjects he talks about far more comprehensive than comprehending. That is, he has talked assertively or pe

they got notice of what he was trying "to put over," since he went to President Taft not later than October or mid-November last. I say that

e President Taft, or did Presid

3

r it is better to be the "in

ple. I desire here to quote some statements written by [1]Samuel G. Blythe. With no thought of discriminating praise I can positively say that Samuel G

hat righ

unanimo

e done as much to help the people of the country in your local fields of interest and activity as

e in the Saturday Evening Post of date, April 15, 1911, is before me. It so fits the point I am now considering-whether Postmaster General Hitchcock was "influenced" or

ompany, Philadelphia, and, by the way, one of the most educative weekly periodicals the world

quotation marks or not, I want the reader to know that Samuel G. Blythe has "wised me up a[35] heap" reg

determined to do things, especially to that deficit. Well, he has been doing things, but scarcely in a way that one would expect from a man coming from the people who grow up there. The writer cannot say whether or not Mr. Hitchcock "growed up there." If he did, some cog must have slipped or "jammed" in his raising. Most bo

square of the distance they are removed (by fortuitous circumstance, political preferment or other means), from t

Hitchcock must be left to readers who have a more i

an in his vigorous, though somewhat peculiar, way to work it off. Whether his dominating intent was to work that deficit off the department books or merely work it off his mind, has not

scarcely able to[36] understand how so much information got to the public), to keep his scheme to remove the Postoffice Department's deficit by shunting the whole of it onto some t

I can tell them that I will give the reader the benefit of that difference and quote him on a number of poin

Senate. It was being read for committee amendments. At half past 4 page 21 of the bill was reached, and with it the amendment proposed by the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroad

se, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads and in charge of the bill, rose in his place, withdrew the amendment increasing second-class postage, and submitted in its stead an amendment providing for a commission to inv

Penrose withdrew the amendment, the Postmaster General's strenuously urged plan to use the taxing power of the government to make himself a censor, with almost unlimited power to declare what magazine and what periodical should be taxed and what magazine and what periodical should

r General Hitchcock put up against investigat

3

much labor, so drawn as to give him the greatest powers of discretion in the application of the increase in second-class postage. He had the regulation of the magazine and periodical press of this country in his own hands, he thought; and he was preparing to regulate it

act to a proper tribunal, to determine exactly what it should cost the government to transport second-class mail. There never has been a minute when the publishers of the country have not been willing to pay exactly what, under a businesslike administration of the department, it should cost to transport their publications. They do not desire a

here, putting out explanations there, assuring certain publishers they would not be taxed, writing letters to Senators and Representatives showing how their districts or states would not be affected, utilizing every resource of his department, of his political connections as former chairman of the Repu

is young and ambitious. He has been in the government service, in various capacities, most of his life since leaving college. He was anxious to make a record. As Postmaster General he was political paymaster for the administration, to a great degree, as there are more postmasters than any one other kind of public off

began work along those lines. There need be no discussion here of the methods by which he made apparent reductions in the expenses of the department. Whether by bookkeeping or oth

f his official duties, signing of reports which subordinates wrote, vouchers for contracts and other payments, and drawing his salary-Mr. Smith had laboriously (?) figured it out that the second-class mail

if he could increase the second-class rate; and seco

government 9 cents a pound to transport second-class mail matter, the total cost being more than sixty million dollars a year, and asked that there should be an increase in secon

ountry, representing not only the Periodical Publishers' Association but many other organizations of publishers of various classes of periodicals, sent representatives to Washington, and there were full hearings before the committee, extending through several days. The publishers stated the

subcaption of "Running Down

3

ed a bill. Before making its report or preparing its bill the commission employed, at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars, or thereabouts, chartered accountants and business experts to make a thorough examination into the business methods of the postoffice department, its expenditures and its resources. The results of the work of these examiners was incorporated

tical basis, was introduced in the Senate and the House, it contained no recommendation for the increase in second-class postage, because the commission had been unable to find any f

ow the facts, likewise, who have both the ability and the courage to tell what they know-agree with me? Why, I ask, if I am mistaken in what I have said and am trying to say, do so many other men who have studied this question,

e contribution, quoting or otherwise, for which I confidently feel he will excuse me. Just here, however, it

Committee on Postoffices and Postroads from which it was reported back by Senator Penrose, Chairman[40] of the Committee, "with amendments." It is only one of those amen

21.)

"Pro

appropriation for inla

er General is auth

ecessary in Washington

to tabulators and cler

ngs for assistance in

ion with the expe

ls on railroad routes

urther, That during t

nineteen hundred and tw

general reading matter

other than newspaper

ss approved March th

ne, entitled "An Act

of the Postoffice Dep

ne thirtieth, eightee

purposes," and in the

Congress approved Ju

ty-four, entitled "An A

22.)

ice of the Postoff

ending June thirtiet

ll be one cent per poun

f any publication of

whole or part, any

ptive, or textual, fo

; Provided, That the i

tions mailing less tha

f each

aracter with the above are clearly in violation of Section 7, Article 1 of

the House of Representatives; but the Senate may p

ither by bill or[41] amendment? A glance at lines 4 to 9 (page 22), as above quoted, will convince even a stranger i

ied men in this country have shown, and they have used Mr. Hitchcock's own figures in doing so, that the increased mail rate as this "rider" provided would not produce over $

and the present law, newspapers are carried free to addresses inside the county of publication, save to addressees resident of towns and cities having carrier deli

on or two, though they are somewhat tangential to the

was covered in this, I believe, studiedly discriminating "rider" on the postoffice appropriation bill-if such a breach was permit

rsonnel of the conspiracy) who tried to "put over" that rider, to make any nincompoop of a politician who chances to be, or who

ting, abrogative legislation is tolerated, how long will it be, think you,[42] before our "banking interests," our "steel interest

e whatsoever for them to get the postal department's required "bona fide"

ry advertising

our blunder they will be advertising ea

hat Senator or Congressman of yours. At least, let him know that you are

of the "interests" into our literary field is "quite impossible;" that "the postal laws prohibit it;" that "it would be a fo

man-who hands you that sort of talk is eithe

knowledge to every citizen who reads when he is awake. Not only that, but the interests, banking, industrial, transportation, etc., have gone into the book publishing business

hundreds of millions, of circular letters and circular matter, under seal and open circular-m

the intent, the ulterior motive, of the conspirators[43] backing that rider t

bout "Lucy and Her Window Garden," another about "High Light Pink, the Broncho Buster," etc., etc. Then can follow a "literary" write-up of how "Jones Rose From a Wheelbarrow Man to Foreman in a Steel

her currency) jell; how to make children "bread winners;" how to "crochet an

n the hospital" (County), and "is under the competent care of the company's physician," of the promotion of "Mr. James Field,

sh is, that no "Interest" periodical will, for a time at any rate, advertise its own interests, save as news matter, and that each "Interest" c

dence, I am forced to the conclusion that it originated with him. Most certainly he nursed it and pushed it forward with the urgent solicitude which

sense of the humor of things, as well as the justice involved, pointed out the fact that any of the competing railroads between New York city and Chicago (easily proven to be twice the "average mail haul"), would carry Mr. Taft, our 300-pound "good fellow" President, the "run" at less than 9 cents a pound. Incidentally the writ

the comparison clear and fair. It is dumped on the floor in a corner of a mail car, with all the intermediate station deliveries atop of it or stacked about it, and at Chicago it is tumb

it costs the government 9.23 cen

omprehending knowledge of a just and fair mail haulage rate? If it does not jar the

tern destination at only a small fraction of his dead-mail rate. Again, while double-deck live stock cars are in extensive use on long hauls, the st

ss mail, read so[45] absurd as to be a joke, were the purpose and purport of his statement not so grave and serious as they are. Even the 4-cent rate that he and a coterie

n another thought presents itself: Did, or did not, Mr. Hitchcock, at the time he was pushing his "rider" in the Senate, have any adequate knowledge of the amount, of second-class mail matter which publishers were then sending by express and fast freight? If he had such knowledge, then he must have known of the fact that thousands of tons of periodicals are now carried by the railroads and express companies at a rate

class service have upon the deficit our solicitous Postmaster General has kept himself so exercised about-that $6,000,000, or, to be exact, using Mr. Hitchcock's own figures, $5,881,481.95? That deficit, if converted into cash, would barely furnish parade money to our army for a month. If the Atlantic squadron undertook a junket with such financial backing its pro

TED BY SECOND-

l among the printing crafts, as it certainly is one of the best informed and most carefully edited journals of any in matters relating to the publication and distribution of periodical literature. The article speaks of several points pertinent to our subject and is so instructively written that I know my rea

; in 1910 it was $5,848,566. The postage r

otal weight of second-class matter was

1 pounds, more than

rate was four tim

,915,426; now it is $224,128,6

free delivery; now that

stered letters; now the

532 of domestic money orders; n

; now they are paid $27,514,362, and

st but little; now it

less than $18,000,000 (there were no postal cards); now are issued,

ng therefore (according to some official mathematicians), more than 9 cents a pound for transpor

4

5-1

the issue of stamps, stamped envelopes and

064,887.96, more tha

rs issued in 1885 was 11,043,2

sued rose from $117,858,921 i

$42,560,844 in 1885 to $224,128,657

nd-class matter in 1885

weight of second-class matter had

r in this business and see what has

6-1

cond-class matter of 41,674,086 pounds;

6,336 pounds-11,000,000 pounds more than in

ass matter of 18,079,292 pounds; the deficit went up to $16,873

in in weight of 28,367,298 pounds;

,865,884 pounds, the largest ever known;

crease in the weight of second-class matter; the d

t the railroads were paid $44,654,514.97, the railway mail service and the postoffice car service cost $24,065,218.88, a tot

deficits and second-class matter; very well, the foregoin

d upon the service in the way of an extension of city delivery, the establishment of rural free delivery, the multiplication in number and increase of pay of officials, increase of government free

4

atter is the immediate cause of great quantities of first-class matter." Mr. Madden and Mr. Lawshe said the same thing. Meyer said that "It is known that second-class matter is instrumental in o

d fourth. The first comprises letters and postals, the second newspa

pulation? Does not their extension depend upon the business energy and the intellectual activity o

sses of mail matter last year, $150,000,000 of it originated immediately, remotely and cumulatively from the second class? How else t

New Willard hotel, at Washington, a year ago, said: "I look upon every one of your l

; the great increase of second-class matter is due to the low postage rate; and the wonderful expansion o

the presence of these figures, is it too much to claim that the government has never lost a dollar in transporting second-class mail, that it is by far th

the publishing business, and encourage and promote the circulation of the public press rather than repress and curtail

realization a

4

EMOR

footed up to 4,229. Of these, 504 died a-bornin, that is, were den

ublications were strangled at birth (denied entry),

eans of knowing. It is not found in the annual reports. It is beyond question that with sample copies cut off and necessary credit for subscr

to get rid of monopoly, the government shou

generally." This statement is made by the newly installed Third Assistant Postmaster General, but it is a delusion which Mr. Britt has unfortunately inheri

then and there changed my mind. I am of the opinion that the news conveyed in its five brief paragraphs will be as new and as surprising to most of my readers as it was to me. Think of 42,623 publications put out of business i

BREACH THE

to breach the federal constitution, following which we will take up some of Mr. Hitchcock's efforts to show how much

en, was theirs a deliberate, calculated attempt to breach the constitutional prerogatives and rights of the Lower House? Did they figure upon putting through that vicious rider in the congested closing hours of Congress? I call them the crooked hours of Congress. Did those back

s to apply a fitting term to such ulterior motives as lead high and respected public officials to breach the constitution by trickery about on a level with that of the sneak thief or with that of a "con" man who thinks he has done his full duty

ntitled "Decisions on Points of Order with Phraseology in the United States Senate." Mr. Gilfry cites the attempt of the Senate to repeal the income tax. The House returned the b

the postoffice appropriation bill. That amendment was very si

ch pound or any fraction thereof. This rate shall apply only to packages deposited at the local postoffice for delivery to patrons on routes[51] emanating from that office, or collected by r

refused to recognize the power of the Senate in the pr

ption, "Prerogatives of the House as to Revenue Legislation," Mr. Hinds cites many instances in which the House had

e same point of order as was raised in debating Mr. Hitchcock's late "rider" and on ea

that the works both of Mr. Hinds and of Mr. Gilfry are on file in the reference libraries of the Senate and House and probably in most of the departments, how, I ask, in view of the above facts, can eit

" was a deliberate frame-up and its architects were a few conspirators who sought by means of that rider

of the session with the hope that in the rush of affairs it might escape[52] notice and go through. And that hope was born of an ulterior purpose to get even with some monthly and weekly publications-publications of independent thought and voice and which have for several years been telling the truth about certain Senators and Congressmen. These independent periodicals have also been tellin

was, however, reintroduced in the House by Congressman Weeks, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the House Postoffice Committee, and by Senator Carter in the Senate. The House refused either to approve or take action on Mr. Hitchcock's recommendation. After con

ase in the second-class mail rates. His recommendation was couched in

nt things in commenting on the situation at this point in our brief outline of how

Progressive Republicans against whom the President had admitted, in his famous Norton-Iowa letter, he had been discriminating and for whom Mr. Hitchcock had no sympathy. The policies, and in many cases the indi

ke good; wanted, as I have previously intimated, to get rid of those pestiferous independent periodicals which

stoffices and Postroads, the personnel of which suited Mr. Hitchcock's quietly nursed purpose-in fact suited him as well as if he had selected the committee himself. Mr. Hitchcock, however, still waited, and while he waited, the House Committee had been appointed and was engaged in considering the postoffice appropriation bill. This House Committee held numerous sessions and gave hearings to many newspapermen and to publishers of periodicals. It went over the entire field o

the 1911 appropriations for the Postoffice Department was passed and advanced to the Senate

rtment[54] appropriation bill, and at no session of that committee did Mr. Hitchcock urge an increase in the second-class po

id he submit any statements or figures to that committee, other tha

man who, for two years, had been running with anti-skidding tires on and the high-speed le

looks to The Man on

ttle interest as almost to indicate an indifference as to what was done or not done? Why, again, was Mr. Hitchcock so inactive, so void of suggestions

to The Man on the Ladder, but one val

ople whose business it is to watch things done and doing at Washington, D. C, that Postmaster General Hitchcock livened up a bit, being car

econd-class postage rates nor any recommendations favoring such advance. With the publishers that ended it. But they failed to consider Mr. Hitchcock. His wiles and ways were, it appears, neither understood nor even suspicioned by those publishers. So, confident and co

and an "organization" man. So is President Taft an organization man. Therefore Senator Penrose is an Administration man to the last ditch-that is, of course, if the administration is Republican. Mr. Hitchcock is also

blic

, of West

ows, of

ck, of

, of Mass

nheim, of

ocr

ferro, of

head, of

or, of T

ell, of

natorial selection-in fact they were repudiated by the states they had been representing or misrepresenting, as the reader cares to take it. As these defeated toga-smudgers attributed

heim, would not be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that the methods pursued by himself and his friends in his elevation to senatorial honors have put him in the class almost removed from criticism. Those methods received much caustic consideration from newspapers and other periodicals. Simon Guggenheim, though reputed to be noticeably obtuse in comprehension and decidedly pachydermatous of

ator Guggenheim could not be other than an Administration man. First, it is said, there are "official" motives and reasons for his being such, and, second, that his intellectual equip

President and the Postmaster General on the "rider" amen

zed as a congenial, obliging and accommodating politician. In all probability, he would not enter any strenuous objections to Mr. Hitchcock's proposed amendment, provided a hint w

he neared Jericho, the scales appear to have fallen from his eyes and he th

esent when action was had. It will be seen, then, that t

enrose, Crane, Burrows, Carter, Scott, Bankhead, Taliaferro, Dick and Simon "Gugg." On the date last named, Senators Carter and Crane went to the White House "by request" to confer with the President. The President, it is said on authority, flatly told the two Senators that they "must" put the amendment into the bill. It is also reported, and to their credit, that the two Senators argued strenuously against the expediency of inserting it, pointing out the fact that such an amendment would go out on a point of order under Senate Rule XVI. Mr. Hitchcock was present throughout the conference. Incidentally, it may be likewise noted that Vice-President Sherman dropped in, quite "by accident" of course, but he showed no hesitancy, it is said, in participating in the discussion a

them. Mr. Hitchcock, however, was present at this committee meeting. He formulated his proposition and the committee went into session, the discussion being led by Senators Carter and Crane, who had become "convinced" against their best judgment if not again

the President. Upon learning that the attitude of the committee was unfriendly, the President at on

ndment all written up and fully varnished and frescoed, and in two hours Mr. Hitchcock's ride

rider, throughout the entire engagement. As an evidence that it was his rider, or

sgruntled because certain independent periodicals had, figuratively speaking, peeled the varnish and smooth epidermis off them, thus ex

ass of the Senate was made, which canvass led Mr. Hitchcock to believe he had the votes to put his rider over the course a sure winner. In that, however, he was mistaken. A number of the Senators had wised up

is deficit buzzer going after nearly everyone about the Capitol knew that Senators La Follette, Bristow, Owen, Gore, Cummins, Bourne, Clapp, Beve

r. That much must be said for him. When a man fights to the last ditch for a lost or losing cause or purpose as he fought for his "rider," that man has courage, nerve, whatev

ctionable cause, but a cause viciously dangerous to our form of government, to the material welfare

riod his followers followed, for such a cause and the methods used to advance it is as difficult for me to work out or solve as the "Pigs-in-Clover" puzzle or the "How Old Is Ann" problem. He must certainly have learned

6

ublication and distribution of publications than the most experienced and successful periodical publishers have yet learned, however e

TNO

Saturday Evening Post informative article, knock me, not my publisher. I may quote and even disf

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